Bus Stop

- Season 1

(1961)

Jed Shelby (Steve Cochran), an aging rodeo rider, returns to Sunrise after many years away to try and help his son, Buzz (Dean Stockwell), who is on trial for murdering his girlfriend.

When former local Victor returns to town with the intent of staying, tongues are wagging to know why. Confiding his scheme to old pal Grace, the super wealthy man buys an estate where he was once a laborer, before making a deal to split up a young couple to complete his life's goal.

Young actress Patricia Parker arrives in Sunrise with a touring theatre troupe and instantly experiences deja vu. Although she has never set foot in the town before, she has an uncanny ability to navigate Sunrise as if she were a local resident. In time Sheriff Mayberry begins to suspect that Parker might be Annie Ahearn, a child missing for twelve years and presumed murdered by a man now serving a life sentence in prison for the crime.

Todays theme is the Covering Darkness.

Tennis bum Johnny Jones runs out of money and gets off the bus in Sunrise. Utilizing his cultivated charm and good looks, he quickly insinuates himself into the town's country club set, where he draws the attention of a gay divorcée, a widow, and the dying daughter of a wealthy man. Johnny romances them all in an attempt to win the wealthiest woman.

A young woman newly arrived in Sunrise is involved in a blackmail scheme with renowned scientist Dr. Emil Kroger. Kroger later confesses to murder, but his police detective friend Stroud believes him to be innocent and participates in concealing Kroger's involvement in the crime.

A naive and over-confident cowboy determines to woo a somewhat blowzy showgirl.

While driving, businessman Joe Harrison is involved in an accident that kills a stranger. A prominent attorney hired for him later produces several witnesses to the accident, but Harrison is stunned when their version of events are outright lies designed to exonerate him. Although advised by everyone to stay quiet, Harrison begins to find himself punished by his own conscience.

On a visit from out of state, Constable Gowdy recognizes upstanding Sunrise citizen Virgil Blessing as his suspect who eluded capture over twenty years ago. When Virgil refuses to be extradited, Gowdy contrives to trick the man into returning with him to Arkansas to stand trial in this serio-comic tale.

D.A. Glenn Wagner's wife Sally gives a young drifter a lift into town, but drops him off at the outskirts after he makes a pass at her. He kills the proprietor of a general store, then goes on a rampage at the local dance hall. After his arrest, he comes under suspicion for the murder. Sally is the only one who can place him at the scene at the time the murder was committed, but has her own dark secrets she doesn't want coming to light.

Former resident Katherine Barnes returns to Sunrise following two marriages and seven years in New York. She finds herself headed for matrimony a third time, but cannot choose between two admirers: college professor Max Hendrick or architect Jim Wylie.

Grace hires young newcomer Tom Hagan to work at the bus stop, while another enigmatic stranger, Ted Hannibal, also arrives in town. Unknown to anyone, both men are in pursuit of a fortune in stolen gold bars, though each for very different reasons.

Romantic intrigue arrives in Sunrise with Annabel Jenkins, daughter of the state's governor Jesse Jenkins. Against her father's wishes, seventeen year old Annabel has eloped with beatnik Omar Kelsey, and the entire state of Colorado is looking for them.

Karen Howard is driving cross country and picks up Gloria White for company. But the situation turns bad as Gloria is a psychopathic jewel thief.

A stranger comes to Sunrise, soon making a play for a hard-boiled waitress, but also for shy, mousy spinster who works in an office. He sweeps both off their feet, in different fashions, asking the typist to marry him. The waitress finds out and forces him to explain he only intends to stay married until she gets an inheritance she has yet to find out about.

Sunrise resident Claire Perkins travels to New York City to become a famous writer. There she becomes involved with producer Oren Dunning and his theatrical friends who are all poised to help Claire climb the ladder to success. When she's discovered hanging in the closet, an apparent suicide, the police begin to unravel her complex relationships.

With their logging business threatened by a busy local highway, the Stumbo brothers of Sunrise discover they own a small section of land on which the highway passes. They challenge the state government by blocking access to the land, resulting in traffic chaos.

Sunrise is outraged by the return of former resident Mark Gateson who comes home after a long prison sentence for the murder of his wife. Gateson declares his innocence and buys an ad in the newspaper offering a reward for the capture of the real killer. When he takes up again with Louisa, the other woman in the love triangle leading to his wife's killing, the town refuses to believe his claims of innocence.

Sunrise decides to erect a war memorial statue in the center of town modeled on its own hometown hero Charlie Vansinger. However, Charlie isn't comfortable with all of the attention bestowed upon him, and attempts to stop it only lead to increasingly outrageous circumstances.

Unlucky in love Carol Wells is cold and embittered following several relationships in which she's been jilted by gold diggers. Wanting revenge against all men, she sets her sights on lonely Frank Everest and hatches a diabolical plan to marry him, frame him for a crime, and enjoy his wealth while he languishes in prison.

Honesty versus greed and revenge pose a problem for John Benson, the only witness to a killing. Benson identifies Scotty Blake as the perpetrator and is rewarded for his efforts by employer Paul Kent with a promotion. However, Kent harbors a longstanding grudge against the Blake family. When Benson worries he's made a mistaken identification and rescinds his statement, he faces the anger of Kent, his family, and the community of Sunrise.

When the impecunious Kevin Brooke finds a suitcase full of money, his problems seem to be over - but they're just beginning.

Lovely Betty Sloane returns to Sunrise for a visit and finds herself suddenly falling in love with Steve Martyck, a traveling salesman. However, there's more to Steve than meets the eye, and after he reveals his true identity to her, their relationship continues though Betty herself is concealing a dark secret of her own.

Returning from a fishing trip Ron and his fiance Ann stops at Elma's for coffee. His nervous behavior is noticed and seems to warrant investigation.

Dr. Paul Larson treats the injuries of a boy who refuses to speak. He suspects the child is frightened to speak because he's the victim of abuse, and after he's later identified, Larson decides the callous mother Barbara Cullum is likely the perpetrator of her son's injuries.

The series finale "I Kiss Your Shadow", with Joanne Linville and George Grizzard as guest stars, is a story of a man crushed by the memory of his wife's death in an automobile accident. In his book Danse Macabre, Stephen King nominated this episode as "...the single most frightening story ever done on TV." King wrote that Bus Stop was "...a straight drama show,... The final episode, however, deviated wildly into the supernatural, and for me, Robert Bloch's adaptation of his own short story "I Kiss Your Shadow" has never been beaten on TV - and rarely any where else - ...